Winter Spirits
by unjaundiced
Summary: AU, real-worldverse. 25 days of winter experiences for the Kakairu Christmas Festival. Ratings will change as story progresses. The meaning of winter changes as you live your life. These are Kakashi and Iruka's experiences.
1. Day 1 :: First Christmas

These are a series of semi-stand alone alternate-universe stories written for the 2011 Kakairu Christmas Fest. Apart from multi-shot fills, these will all occur in consecutive years.  
>Appropriate ages will be mentioned in the summaries so you can keep track. Ratings will be varied and will be mentioned at the head of each chapter.<p>

NOTE: Kakashi-momma needed a name so I used the same one as A Flashy Entrance. Other per re nata character names are in the same boat so there are technically original characters but they are necessary to the story and won't get in the way so don't let them scare you off.

I am thinking of posting a chapter every Sunday night/Monday morning.

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><p><strong>Series ::<strong> Winter Spirits  
><strong>Title ::<strong> First Christmas  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [baby!Kaka + technically OCs]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong>AU. Kakashi meets his first mall Santa.

* * *

><p>Everything was a little vague and hazy. There were strange jingling noises and he couldn't quite focus on any one thing and that bothered him. He wanted the world to just stop being so... <em>much<em>.

"Do you think he's ready," a woman's voice questioned from somewhere overhead.

"He'll be fine," a man's low baritone responded.

The baby stared at the underside of his mother's chin; fascinated by the movement of her lower jaw. He reached out and frowned when he realized his fingers were covered by mittens. He reached out with his other hand and frowned even harder when he realized it was covered as well. Determined that it would not do, he set to freeing his appendages with mounting frustration; desperately flailing his tiny limbs weakly.

Sakumo frowned at his intense looking son. No 3-month-old should look so serious or so focused on whatever it was he was doing. He almost voiced his observation when Kakashi growled, arched his back and caught his mother under her chin with a flailing arm. She yelped and quickly swaddled him tightly in a blanket.

He looked very displeased and stared very hard as if willing her to do something about his predicament.

"Babies are weird," Sakumo commented. His wife just rolled her eyes.

Someone small jostled them from behind and was quickly removed with an apology. Sakumo turned, annoyed at having a child run into him for the fifth time in ten minutes. Nanori bumped him and gave him a meaningful look. He grumbled something under his breath and slanted a glance at the bratty looking girl sneaking up on his legs.

She charged at him again.

"NEXT!" came a shout from the front of the line. An overly enthusiastic man dressed in green practically skipped forward, a wide-eyed baby waving a plush hammer aimlessly in his arms. Sakumo grinned and deftly scooted out of the girl's way leaving her to charge straight into the velvet stanchion ropes. Her shriek of outrage as she bounced off the ropes was music to his ears.

"Sakumo," Nanori hissed warningly. Kakashi stared balefully at him from the cradle of her arms. He wriggled, still looking annoyed.

The woman behind them hissed out a warning and grabbed at her daughter. The girl scowled and darted away, blowing a raspberry as she did so. Sakumo growled at that and stepped toward the ropes, ready to leave the line and dole out some corporal punishment when he was bumped yet again.

What now! He wheeled around only to find himself faced with the back of a man helping his wife cross the ropes.

He cleared his throat and the man turned. It was the EMT that headed the emergency response sector at Konoha University Hospital where he worked. His expression didn't change, but inwardly he groaned at the sight of that peach-fuzzed face. The bushy non-regulation ponytail should have given him away.

"Hatake-sensei," the man greeted him, happily securing the rope and planting himself firmly in front of their position in line before executing a slight bow.

"Umino-sensei," Sakumo sighed, nodding back. "What brings you here?"

"We're here to see Santa, of course!" the man responded, blissfully unaware of the annoyance he was causing. His wife bounced eagerly at his side, looking a little plump under her coat. Sakumo wondered if there was a way to tactfully leave weight loss suggestion pamphlets around the trauma ward staff rooms.

"How many months along," Nanori questioned. Umino-sensei's wife, a nurse at the same hospital Sakumo recalled, beamed.

"Four months," Nurse Umino replied, patting her belly. Sakumo could have slapped himself. He'd forgotten she was scheduled for maternity leave in a few months. He supposed he should learn her name as well because Nurse Umino sounded silly outside the hospital now that he thought about it.

"If it's a boy," she confided. "We're calling him I–"

"NEXT!"

"So um... Do you mind if we..." She gestured at the man sitting on a throne ahead of them, already inching her way down the plush red carpet.

Yes we do! Sakumo mentally shouted at her, patience at lines, small children, and bright shiny things in general wearing thin. Of course Nanori was on the same wavelength.

"Of course not, Eri-san," Nanori replied, making an odd forward shrug with Kakashi. Of course Nanori would choose now to be contrary and to somehow know Nurse Umino's name. She probably knew Doctor Umino's name too––just to spite him.

"Let's take one together after, all right?" Eri said, bouncing up the steps in a manner unbefitting a woman in her second trimester. Her long-suffering husband shrugged helplessly and joined her on the dais, looming awkwardly over the Santa.

"Our baby's first picture with Santa," Eri proclaimed, popping a gaudy antlered headband on her head. She jammed a premade present ribbon on her belly and made a V with each hand, grinning broadly. The Santa did his jolly duty and ho-ho-hoed his way through the series of flashbulbs before giving each of them a small toy.

"Oh goody, our turn," Nanori chirped, rushing forward while Eri excitedly waved her over, a headband with a giant snowflake on it in her hand. Sakumo bit back a groan as a gaudy elf maneuvered him into place.

Kakashi looked sideways at the strange white and red man next to him. Fluffy curly hairs spilled down the front of his coat in a shade of white so bright, it was hard to look at. He tried to reach out and touch the strange man's coat and frowned when he was reminded of his bondage. The man looked at him and he turned away, turning back only when the man was no longer looking. He was entirely too suspicious.

"Let's take their picture together," an excited voice cried out before a large shape came into Kakashi's personal bubble. He had a bare moment to inspect the bright bow stuck to it before a blinding flash of light stole his sight.

He yowled.


	2. Day 2 :: Snowflakes

Day 2 of the 2011 Kakairu Christmas Festival.  
>NOTE :: I messed up with Day 1 so Kakashi is 8 months older than Iruka rather than 2 years and 8 months. It cannot be helped, but it also works out better for school timing.<p>

**Title ::** Snowflakes  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [baby!Kaka + baby!Iru + OCs]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Kakashi and Iruka get their first winter wonderland experience. Kakashi is not impressed and freely utilizes his favorite word.  
>(Set the year after <span>First Christmas<span>. Kakashi is 1 year old, Iruka 7 months.)

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><p>High up in the stratosphere, a tiny crystal formed, arms radiating out like tetracycles, fragile fingers racing in an ever-expanding lace web before chipping off on the limbs of its siblings as they tumbled in a mass –melting each second– to the world below. If a snowflake could scream, the air would have been deafening and unbearable. Instead, the wayward snowflake fluttered its way past its brethren in silence, a gasp of wind whisking it round the holly-wreathed spike atop a wrought iron lamp post and down the street towards a building awash in a rainbow of lights where two women occupied a bench, one of which who was waving around a video camera and seeming to film everything with avid excitement.<p>

The icy little soldier swirled upwards on a light eddy and floated gently back down before landing on the ultra-fine hairs of a baby's nose, trembling on the cusp of destruction, unaware of the eye of the lens focused on it.

Kakashi, now a full year old, stared cross-eyed at his nose and wrinkled his thin white eyebrows. His bright blue eyes were narrowed in contemplation as he scrunched up his nose experimentally. He frowned; a sight his parents had long since become familiar with.

"What is it, Kakashi-chan," his mother cooed, smiling at his pensive expression as she bounced him lightly on her lap, dislodging the thin layer of snow blanketing his dog-faced cap. She patted his head gently. "What are you thinking about now?"

His eyes flickered up to her before returning to his damp foe. He slowly reached up towards his face in an uncoordinated fashion, saw his ever-hated mittens and grunted. In one smooth motion, he yanked them off and threw them on the ground and reached out towards his face again.

The world tilted as Nanori bent to pick up his discarded mittens, sighing that her son was too clever for his age. He clutched at her arm in surprise as he leaned sideways before ignoring her for his mission. His eyes crossed again as he eyed the snowflake still perched on the tip of his nose. Suddenly his vision blurred a little and he blinked, something cold landing on his cheeks and pushing inwards at the same time.

Iruka giggled and leaned out to poke Kakashi again, brushing the flakes clumsily off his eyelashes and tracing the damp trails they left behind. He pressed Kakashi's nose right on the snowflake and made a little beeping noise.

Kakashi glared.

Iruka beeped again.

"Hey!" Eri scolded, taking a break from filming to pull Iruka's arm back. He looked at her with confusion before breaking out in a gap-toothed grin.

"Aw," she cooed, wiggling his arm before letting it go so she could reclaim her video camera.

Iruka eyed her for a moment until she looked away then lunged toward Kakashi again, this time with both arms outstretched. The snow-headed baby's eyes widened and he leaned back, a move made useless as Nanori leaned forward to catch the brunette.

"Kaka!" Iruka cried gleefully, clutching at a soft blue pom pom dangling from Kakashi's winter onesie and yanking hard. Kakashi frowned and batted at the offending appendage as Eri tried to separate them.

"No!" he scolded. "No! No!"

Iruka just waved his fist harder and threw his weight forward again, arms open and expression demonically gleeful. They met with matching "oomphs" this time, Kakashi instinctively wrapping his arms around Iruka as the other boy snuggled into him.

"No, eh-Ruka," he scolded again, awkwardly sounding out Iruka's name. He pulled at the brunette's arms. "Not here. No."

Nanori chuckled and took Iruka's bottom half from Eri, shifting in her seat as she resettled, jumping only slightly from the cold damp. Eri cooed and turned her camera towards them and began filming.

Kakashi frowned at his mother and told her quite firmly, "No" before trying to push the other boy away. Iruka whined and tried to hug him, one hand brushing a small pile of snow gathered on the slats of the bench.

"Col'," he cried petulantly, struggling as Nanori sat him up.

"Cold?" Kakashi stared at him curiously. Iruka stared at his hand which was clenched in a fist, then at Kakashi. He grinned Kakashi's eyes narrowed.

"Col'!" Iruka crowed, leaning forward and slapping a hand covered in slush across Kakashi's cheeks.

Kakashi sat still for a moment, clearly stunned. Then he growled and launched himself at his playmate with a high-pitched roar. Iruka roared back and leapt at (more like fell upon) his attacker.

"Okay, calm down. Relax," Nanori ordered, trying to pull them apart. Iruka roared childishly again, kicking off the bench to propel himself forward. Kakashi's eyes gleamed and he roared back.

Eri giggled and continued to film, offering unhelpful encouragement off-camera.

"Get him! Get him!" she cried, waving her free hand excitedly.

Iruka fumbled around for his hood and pulled it on lopsidedly, the soft plush antlers hanging forward. He pushed his plump diaper-clad bottom skyward and let out a mighty "RAWR" that made his mother almost drop her camera before he tried to headbutt Kakashi.

Kakashi looked startled for a moment, then reached down and scooped a handful of snow off the bench and shoved it down the front of Iruka's kirugumi. The reindeer-clad baby yelped and sat back to paw at his outfit. The older baby looked at him for a moment before smiling victorious and patting him on the arm.

Iruka paused and looked at him, tilting his head curiously, antlers flopping sideways.

"No," Kakashi said firmly.

A snowflake landed on his nose.

Iruka reached out.

* * *

><p><strong>:NOTES:<strong>  
>Kirugumi is a onesie that looks like an animal or anime character (usually for adults but they make them for children and infants as well)<p>

Tetracycles are polyhedral forms of crystals (basically the faceted shape of a crystal and/or its drawn representation)


	3. Day 3 :: Wrapping Things Up

Day 3.

**Title ::** Wrapping Things Up  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [baby!Kaka + baby!Iru + OCs]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. It's time to wrap presents. Kakashi helps. Iruka does not. (Set the year after Snowflakes. Kakashi - 2, Iruka - 1.5)

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><p>Sakumo sat on the rug made colorful by the streamers of ribbon coming undone from their rolls, curled ends twisting in and amongst each other. Bright rolls of paper lay strewn across the living room floor from where he'd given up on keeping them propped up against the sofa where a small body lay sleeping. A multitude of boxes filled with toys were stacked around him and he looked slightly stumped.<p>

Kakashi sat just off to his side, carefully turning a name tag in his chubby fingers, mouth moving as he worked out the characters on it. He looked at his father and held out the piece of paper.

"Amiya Haneko," he declared.

"Thank you, Kakashi," Sakumo took the bell-shaped tag from the toddler and carefully affixed it to a box with reindeer paper. He set the box aside and unrolled the next length of paper.

Kakashi reached into the bag full of randomly shaped name tags and drew one out. He showed it to his father who nodded before he turned it around and studied the characters written on it.

Sakumo sighed and rolled his shoulders, neck cracking with the motion. A box with a dump truck in it went on the paper and he began the awkward motion of measuring, silently cursing the size of the boxes that made pre-cut sheets an impossibility.

Every year, Pediatrics got together a list of children who would be spending Christmas in the hospital and names were drawn to see who would purchase Secret Santa gifts for them all. This year, Nanori, the Pediatrics Director, decided she wanted to wrap all the presents herself and had all the Secret Santas deliver their gifts to their house, the names of the children written on sticky notes affixed to the gifts.

Of course she had gone off with Eri to do some girly thing and left Sakumo with the two boys. Thankfully Iruka had already been asleep when Eri had dropped him off so Sakumo didn't really have to worry too much. Kakashi was quite serious for a 2-year-old and was fascinated with words since he'd started to read and was happy to handle the name tag portion of the gift wrapping.

"Ugh, this sucks," Sakumo mumbled, fumbling with the tape with one hand as he tried to keep the ends of the paper together at the middle seam. Tiny hands came to rest on the seam next to his finger and he looked up to meet the dark blue eyes of his son.

"Thank you, Kakashi-kun," he smiled. Kakashi nodded and looked at his hands with intense concentration.

Sakumo almost taped over one of Kakashi's fingers and was treated to a sloe-eyed look of disbelief. He was annoyed at feeling shamed by a toddler and thought to himself, not for the first time, that Kakashi was such an old man.

He had better luck folding the sides, but Kakashi was just a little better, even with his clumsy fingers. He couldn't quite manage a ribbon bow so he taped strips of ribbon across the box and left them bare. His only saving grace was that he had self-adhesive pre-made ribbons at the ready which he freely applied without shame.

A tiny hand tugged his finger and he looked down.

"Amuro Kenji," Kakashi said, holding out a teddy bear shaped name tag.

"Thank you, Kakashi-kun," he said solemnly, peeling the sticky back off the sticker and putting it under one of the Christmas trees on the paper.

Kakashi nodded once and fished out another name tag. A soft sound made him drop it.

The soft sound came again and Kakashi heaved himself to his feet and toddled to the couch on wobbly knees. He carefully stood up on his toes and peered at the widely yawning mouth presented to him. He poked his finger inside.

"Chomp!" Iruka shouted, giggling as Kakashi yanked his hand back.

"Don't bite me," Kakashi grumbled, wiping his hand on his pants leg.

Iruka sat up, eyes bright from sleep. He wore a polar bear kirugumi this time, soft claws black against the white of his kicking feet. He bounced lightly and rolled off the couch, tiptoeing to reach the floor.

"Hello, Iruka-kun," Sakumo greeted, sighing internally at the interruption. Kakashi could never concentrate properly when Iruka was both around _and_ awake.

"What you do?" Iruka asked, toddling over to the pile of ribbons.

"I'm wrapping gifts," Sakumo replied absently, taking a boxed doll off the stack of toys. Suddenly a spool of ribbon shot across his leg and his head snapped up.

Iruka was busy flinging the rolls of ribbon across the floor, holding onto their loose tails and shaking them at the same time. Kakashi stood next to him watching him curiously.

"No! Oh gods, what are you–" Sakumo grabbed at the spools as they rolled past him, feeling control slipping away.

Iruka laughed and threw another one before Sakumo gave up and confiscated all the ribbon. Iruka froze and stared at him with huge eyes, lower lip wibbling. Sakumo's eyes narrowed and he stared down the brunet before Kakashi wobbled his way in front of his friend and awkwardly put his arms around him.

"No good, Iruka," he said. "Don't do it!"

"'kay," Iruka caved immediately.

Kakashi gave him a self-adhesive ribbon to play with and showed him how the paper peeled away from the sticky part. Iruka's chubby fingers couldn't really manage the complex thing so Kakashi peeled one for him. Iruka tried to stick the ribbon to his tongue and made a face at the taste.

"Don't eat that!" Sakumo yelped, taking the ribbon out of Iruka's mouth.

"Yucky," Iruka declared, planting a yellow ribbon on Sakumo's knee.

"You don't eat it," he mumbled. "It's for the presents."

Iruka ignored him and yanked on a roll of paper. Sakumo sighed heavily as it unrolled and ran across the floor.

Kakashi tugged on his sleeve and held out a train-shaped name tag bearing the name of Namikaze Minato.

"Thank you, Kakashi-kun," Sakumo mumbled helplessly.

He left the two children with paper scraps and empty cardboard rolls to play with while he went back to wrapping presents. If he had more experience with toddlers and small children in general, he would have never done such a thing.

_Much later..._

"Yatta! Done!" Sakumo cried, stretching towards the ceiling. He paused as he realized he hadn't heard much noise from the boys in a while and looked around curiously.

Jagged strips of paper hung from various places on the wall and from the face of the television like a beard, stuck with tiny bits of tape. A colorful lump lay near the Christmas tree Nanori insisted on having. Sakumo crawled up to it and grinned mischievously before knee-walking to the cabinet where Nanori kept a digital camera.

Later in the week, a Christmas postcard picture would be sent to the family and friends of the Uminos and the Hatakes of two little boys bound in bright wrapping paper scraps and ribbons pasted to their faces, sleeping together halfway in a big box under a Christmas tree.


	4. Day 4 :: Odd Shaped Packages

Day 4.

**Title ::** Odd-Shaped Packages  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [baby!Kaka + baby!Iru + OCs]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Kakashi gets an odd-shaped package. (Set the year after Wrapping Things Up. Kakashi - 3. Iruka - 2)

* * *

><p>Iruka sat next to Kakashi clutching a stuffed dolphin and sucking on a dried squid. His father had largely given up on trying to stop Eri from feeding him bar food for snacks since he liked it so much. As long as Iruka didn't try to <em>kiss<em> anyone, no one would have to suffer his breath.

Kakashi ignored Iruka and his musty fishy breath and turned the big flat package in his hands. The paper covering it was bright green with little trains filled with candy and presents racing all over. His name was carefully written on a train-shaped name tag and he couldn't help but to smile a little. He knew what a hard flat shape meant.

"Kakashi, hurry!" a high-pitched voice called.

He turned just in time for a damp and slightly chewed up squid to slap him on the cheek. He made a face and pushed it away.

"Gross, Iruka," he grumbled. "Put it away!"

Iruka shoved the squid into his mouth and sucked on it, cheek bulging. He mumbled, "I wan she."

Kakashi held his package away from Iruka and gave him a stern look. The brunet knew he liked to take things slow. Iruka just liked to tear his presents open and make a mess, had already done so a few minutes prior. Kakashi liked to save the paper and fold it into neat squares.

"You already opened yours," he told the other boy.

Iruka stuck his tongue out around his squid and aimed his dolphin's nose at Kakashi before uttering a muffled 'pew pew'.

"Don't shoot me when you have squid in your mouth," Kakashi told him, primly sliding a finger under one of the flaps.

Iruka chewed his squid faster, eyes focused on Kakashi's fingers, trembling with excitement as he squeezed his dolphin tighter. He bounced on his knees. Kakashi was always _so_ _sloooooow_.

Kakashi peeled the train paper away with agonizing slowness; so slow that one of the adults almost rushed forward to tear off the paper herself.

_Kakashi,_ Tsunade groaned to herself. _You're slower than the Earth!_

The face that appeared under the top flaps of the paper was one of a strange looking creature. It had skin sagging all over its body. Its face was almost completely obscured by its own wrinkles. It was love at first sight.

Kakashi flipped the book over and the face of a pug greeted him, odd smile on its flat face. He frowned at the strange looking dog. Next to it was the fluffy body of a sandy colored dog and behind that was a white one.

"You like dogs, right?" A big man with white hair crouched down next to the toddler.

Kakashi blinked and looked up before nodding. Jiraiya grinned at ruffled the boy's spiky hair, just turning a silvery color. To him the kid was kind of blur, but his hair was a personality unto itself.

"Ugh, thank the god of time," Tsunade mumbled. "I was getting old."

"You _are_ old," Jiraiya shot, adjusting his lab coat and pointing at the cardiology director. "Get _over_ it!"

She flicked at eraser at his head and rolled her eyes. "We're the same age, you old coot," she grumbled.

Kakashi ignored them and carefully folded his wrapping paper at the seams before putting it by his father's feet. Sakumo, used to his son's odd ways, picked up the paper and tossed it on the desk Tsunade was sitting on. Kakashi opened the book and carefully perused the pictures of the different dogs, Iruka leaning over his shoulder and chewing his diminishing squid remnant.

"Oi, kid," Tsunade mumbled, nudging Kakashi's leg with her toe.

Kakashi looked at her foot, then eyed her with reservation, carefully easing away from the offending appendage. She rolled her eyes.

"Here, catch," she deadpanned, tossing a lumpy package at him. He caught it with more dexterity than most 3-year-olds posessed and she had to admit to being mildly impressed, though she would never tell anyone.

"A present?" he asked.

"No, it's just a bunch of rubbish I taped together," Tsunade said. Kakashi looked at her. "Of course it's a present! Geez."

The paper on the present was covered in dice and taped to an impossible degree. There would be no saving it. This package required surgery.

"Cut it," Kakashi said, holding his hand out for scissors.

"Ah! Don't... Don't cut it," Tsunade said, scrubbing at the back of her head. "I mean, I didn't tape it so hot or anything, but don't cut it."

"Why do you have to make things so complicated," Sakumo muttered. "They're just kids."

"I'll do it!" Iruka shouted, eagerly snatching the present away from Kakashi.

Kakashi shrugged and let Iruka have at it, watching curiously as the other boy's fingers found all the untaped spots and dug in. Small bits of paper flew in the air and Iruka grunted as he yanked at the tape itself.

"Thank god it's not something alive," Tsunade muttered to herself as Iruka's yanking strangled whatever was in the package with the tape noose he'd formed.

"If you wrapped something alive like that, it wouldn't be alive anymore," Jiraiya countered smugly, arching away as her fist shot out towards his head.

"Kakashi, pull!" Iruka commanded, holding out the ruined looking present, an odd bulge semi-separate from the bottom. Kakashi gingerly squeezed and the bulge depressed with soft resistance. He frowned and dug his fingers into the tape webbing.

Iruka grinned and yanked backwards, snapping the tape and sending them flying in opposite directions.

"Oof!" Kakashi grunted as he fell back and found himself staring at his father's bemused face. There was a faint pattering of feet and Iruka appeared, huge grin plastered across his face.

"Kakashi," he sang. "Guess what you have!"

Kakashi, still staring at the ceiling, began to squish the thing in his hands. It had hard beady things and odd fuzzy folds. There were thinner parts and a little nub. He held it up and came face to face with the wrinkled flat face of a plush pug.

He couldn't help it. He smiled. He smiled so big his cheeks hurt.

Iruka rolled over next to him and cooed over the doll, making his dolphin talk to the dog and kiss it on the nose. Kakashi growled back using the dog.

"Kakashi-kun," Sakumo interrupted. Dark grey-ringed eyes stared up from the floor.

"What do you say to Tsunade-bachan?" he prompted.

Kakashi clambered up, shyly clutching his new doll and shuffled towards an amused looking Tsunade. He scuffed his foot a little before darting forward and giving her leg a brief hug.

"Thank you for Pug-kun," he mumbled, cheeks heating before he ran away to stand by Iruka who laughed and hugged him, waving his dolphin at his face and making kissing sounds.


	5. Day 5 :: One Horse Open Carriage

Day 5

**Title ::** One Horse Open … Carriage  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [baby!Kaka + baby!Iru + OCs]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Kakashi and Iruka go for a carriage ride. (Set the year after Odd-Shaped Packages, making them about 4 years old)

* * *

><p>"You want a what?" Santa blurted out looking startled, leaning in as Kakashi whispered in his ear and finding himself cheek-to-face with a plush pug. He hmmed thoughtfully and tried to ignore the beady eyes staring him down.<p>

"Well that is a bit of an unusual request, but I'll see what I can do for you," he commented after a small silence. Kakashi nodded and slid off the man's knee, bumping into Iruka who was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Now be good little boys and have a good Christmas," the be-throned Santa ordered as he waved them off. "And don't forget to visit the temple on New Years Eve!"

Iruka hopped back and forth and waved his dolphin plush at the man, almost knocking away the toy drum an elf tried to give him. Kakashi seemed to think about it for a moment before offering his own small wave. Behind them Eri was being her normal excitable self and had her camera set to multi-frame and was busy blinding all and sundry with her flashes.

Umino Michio, Konoha University Hospital EMT and First Response and Trauma Care Instructor, decided to exercise his particular trauma per re nata extraction skills and grabbed the boys by their free hands before carefully hurrying them past the velvet ropes towards freedom, bowing his apologies to the half-blind patrons waiting in line as they passed. Eri followed them mindlessly, camera still flashing away as she captured everything from window displays to fake presents on stands.

Eri almost walked into a rack of candy canes in the shape of a Christmas tree before Michio confiscated her camera with a stern look. She pouted for all of three seconds before she saw something outside the mall that made her positively light up.

Michio looked at her with dread. An excited Eri rarely meant something good.

She ran to the glass doors and jumped up and down like a child, pointing outside and shouting, "Look! Look! Look!"

Iruka tried to run towards her only to be halted when Michio failed to release his hand. He looked towards his father and stamped his feet in an imitation of the pee-pee dance before groaning out an aggravated "_Please!"_, tugging relentlessly.

"No running indoors," Michio scolded. "You could fall and crack your head open."

"I won't crack my head open," Iruka whined, stamping in his odd dance, not realizing they had steadily been moving towards the doors the whole time.

"We're here," Kakashi uttered in his typical bored manner, hiking Pug-kun higher against his side. Iruka blinked at that.

"Look, Iruka-chan! Kakashi-chan!" Eri crouched to their level and pointed outside. Their eyes widened.

"Horses," Kakashi breathed.

"I wanna ride!" Iruka shouted, already trying to push the door open.

"Buggy rides?" Michio asked skeptically. "Do you know how many horse and carriage related accidents occur every year in Amish country?"

"This isn't America," Eri retorted, stealing back her camera and darting out the door, Iruka slipping through the gap behind her.

Michio looked down at Kakashi who merely stared back with unnerving calm.

"She's right, you know," the silver-headed boy said. "This isn't America."

"One day I'll explain sarcasm to you, Kakashi-kun," Michio sighed, pushing the door open.

Kakashi shrugged and pulled away to inspect the horses lined up at the curb.

"Let's ride–" Eri started to point to a sturdy Clydesdale attached to a large sleigh-like buggy when Iruka cut her off.

"This one!" he shouted, jumping up and down and pointing with his whole body at a carriage attached to a white horse.

More specifically, he was leaning at, waving his arms at, pointing his dolphin plush at, kicking his feet in the general direction of– a delicately sprung Cinderella-styled pumpkin _coach _covered in shimmery blue and white lights and gauzy white fabric drawn by a spindly-legged fairytalesque horse with a _plumed headdress_ on its forehead.

Michio was aghast.

Eri was enthralled.

"Yes, that one!" she cried, running to jump in on Iruka's body-pointing party.

"That's girly," Kakashi stated.

"Is not!" Iruka shouted, clambering in as the driver opened the door for him. "It's pretty!"

"I don't want to ride in a girly cart with a useless looking horse," he declared, pointing towards a matched pair of Clydesdales attached to an open buggy. "Those are better."

"You're just jealous because I got here first," Iruka declared, settling himself more firmly in his seat.

"Kakashi-kun, you don't do have to ride if you don't want to," Michio offered. Kakashi stared forward, lower lip pushed out petulantly.

"I don't like that one," he groused.

Michio sighed. He was really not good with children and Kakashi had the oddest way of going back and forth between being a tiny adult and a small child. He couldn't keep up.

A sudden shout and the patter of stampeding feet made them turn at the same time, Kakashi's eyes widening before he bolted for the "girly carriage". Michio shrugged, thinking he'd changed his mind, and climbed in after.

As they pulled away, a little boy wearing a bright green outfit with a fluorescent orange scarf and matching booties ran to the curb and made a moue of dramatic disbelief. The disbelief turned to outraged competitiveness when he saw Kakashi and he pointed an orange-mittened finger in their general direction. Kakashi slumped low in his seat and peeked over the edge of the window at the boy, ducking as the boy began to point with both hands.

"You have beaten me to the Carriage of Brilliance, my rival!" the boy shouted. "Next time, you shall not be so lucky!"

At tall man wearing a dark green jumper came to stand by the boy and peered in the direction of his shouting before snorting and ruffling his hair. The man waved at the carriage and turned the boy's head before nudging him towards one of the other buggies.

"I want a rival too," Iruka declared, a pout forming. "Tell Gai to be my rival too!"

"I think you have to be in the same class to be a rival," Kakashi mumbled, sounding depressed. "You're behind me in school. I'm in kindergarten already."

"Grr, not fair," Iruka grumbled. "I should have asked Santa for a rival."

"I don't think Santa can bring you a rival," Michio soothed, casting a warning look towards Eri. She was starting to get a crafty expression which boded ill for many. She instantly gave him the most innocent look she could.

"So, Iruka," she said– a skilled arbiter of misdirection and smooth changes of topic. "What did you ask Santa for?"

"Hm..." he pondered aloud, tapping his chin with his dolphin's nose. "Hm... hm... hm..."

He grinned broadly and pointed at Kakashi, finger almost touching his nose.

"Same thing I wished for last year! I wish for Kakashi and me to be together forever!" he shouted.

"You can't ask Santa for that," Kakashi groaned, pushing Iruka's hand away. "You have to ask him for stuff he can _give _you, not stuff you already have. And 'sides. I'm not going away."

"Fine then," Iruka groused, annoyed at having apparently wasted his request to Santa two years in a row.

"What did you ask for?"

"A brain," Kakashi deadpanned, shrugging.

"A what?" Eri blurted out, looking startled.

"So I can study it," he continued, casting her a look that said it should have been obvious. "How else can I become a great neurologist like my father?"

"Um, well I hope Santa brings you what you want," Michio mumbled, making a mental note to leave Sakumo a note about his son sometime.


	6. Day 6 :: Ninjabread Men

Day 6

**Title ::** Ninjabread Men  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [kid!everybody]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Kakashi and Iruka decorate cookies. Well, first they go shopping. Jiraiya-sensei and Gai-kun get involved.

(Set the year after One Horse Open… Carriage, making them about 5 years old)

* * *

><p>Kakashi carefully cradled his little carton of eggs as he walked next to his mother. A loud metallic clatter at his side made him jump a little and he jostled his eggs. He frowned and darted a glare at the offender.<p>

Iruka grinned broadly and grabbed another can off the shelf and threw it in his tiny shopping trolley, giving a jaunty toss of his head as it clanged against the wire frame. His hair, caught up in a small ponytail, wagged with him.

"Don't do it," Kakashi ordered, stepping away from him. Iruka threw him a challenging look and grabbed another one.

"Don't–"

The can slammed home.

"If you're bad, you won't get any presents," Kakashi warned, hands tightening on his egg carton as Iruka reached for another can.

"I just have to be good _right _before Christmas," Iruka proclaimed, blinking as the projectile was plucked from his grasp.

"I didn't know you liked canned beets," Jiraiya mused, inspecting the can before putting it back on the shelf.

"Hate it!" Iruka declared, sticking his tongue out in disgust.

"You have a cart full of them," Jiraiya informed him, pointing at the cans piled in his little shopping trolley. "That's an odd way of hating them."

"I'm throwing them," Iruka grinned. "They're better when you make a big noise!"

"I told him not to," Kakashi added, determined to make sure he wasn't implicated in any way. "He never listens."

Iruka blew a raspberry at him and made a face. "Old man," he whined.

"Now, now," Jiraiya cut in, poking at the cans and boxes in the shopping trolley. He paused.

"What are you two shopping for anyhow," he mused.

"We're making cookies," Kakashi told him, clutching his egg carton to his chest and thrusting it out at the same time.

"Pirate gingerbread!" Iruka crowed.

"Pirates?" Jiraiya raised an eyebrow. "Not ninjas?"

"_And _ninjas," the brunet instantly corrected.

"Why ninjas," Kakashi muttered. "It's Christmas. It should be _Christmas _stuff."

"Ninja gingerbread!" Iruka shouted, waving his arms with excitement and jumping up and down. "Ninja ginger! Ginger ninjas! Ninjabread men!"

"Ninjas aren't Christmas!" Kakashi protested.

"No one made Christmas have rules," Jiraiya said, patting the boy on the head and ruffling his hair. "Ninjas can be Christmassy. You just have to change their clothes."

"Santa ninjas?" Kakashi looked doubtful.

"Or that," Jiraiya snorted. "Instead of shuriken, they can throw gifts at people and use ribbon for..."

A slightly lascivious and sleazy look ghosted over his face, chased away when Kakashi muttered a disgusted "ew".

"Hey!"

He sounded offended.

.

An hour later and Jiraiya was scrubbing madly at an egg white stain on his red jumper, grumbling that he was not a housewife, not noticing the way he was spreading powdered sugar all over his elbow. Behind him, the hospital cafeteria's kitchen was a bustling wreck of both children and spilt ingredients. Egg was dashed across the white tiles above the sinks. Flour dusted ovens and table tops, smooth powdery fields broken up by random hand prints and sticky globs of brown. Bowls were stacked up higgledy piggledy and cookie cutters were being wielded with extreme prejudice.

He felt something sticky on the rolled cuff of his jumper and groaned as he saw a smear of cookie dough settling into the fibers. He sighed and gave up, turning to inspect his ruinous kingdom, cringing at the sight of so much partially supervised chaos. How he had gotten roped into this, he couldn't say.

One moment he was cruising the super market for ice cream and the next he was helping his cousin-in-law unload ingredients in the cafeteria's kitchen before a bevy of kids. As it turned out, Nanori had arranged a bit of a free day for the healthier pediatric patients and they had all come down to help bake cookies. It was just bad luck that left him in the crossfire.

A tug at his trousers had him cringing at the thought of more sticky residue and the smile he turned on the child trying to get his attention was more of a grimace than anything else. He managed a weak, "Yes?" just as a floppy _raw _doughy ninja was thrust up to his face.

"Made you something!" A little boy with spiky hair shouted.

"Ah, very good Kotetsu!" Jiraiya praised awkwardly, carefully catching the drooping cookie dough man. "Let's get him on a tray, shall we?"

Kotetsu grinned and trotted after his hero. Jiraiya-sensei had, after all, been treating his leukemia for quite some time now.

Seated at the finishing bench were a blonde boy with bright blue eyes and a green-eyed girl with an orange scarf wound around her head. Between them were Kakashi and Iruka, the latter of which whom was standing on his chair and _hopping _with a tube of red icing in his hand. The icing was dribbling down his fingers like Candyland blood.

"I'm _telling you,_ ninjas aren't orange," Minato complained, trying to take away Kushina's orange icing.

"And I say they are, -tebane!" she shouted back, squeezing the tube as she pulled, a half orange ninja kicking at nothing in front of her.

"Let's make everything red!" Iruka interjected, shaking his icing covered fist. Ninja gingerbread cookies were spread out in front of him, red icing _all _over, even on their faces.

"Green!" a voice piped up, tiny hands appearing at the edge of the table as the top of a chair slid into place. A brightly smiling face popped up and Kakashi groaned internally.

"And red!" Iruka shouted, shaking his fist again, not realizing he was starting to splatter the icing.

"And _orange! _" Kushina declared, squeezing the icing tube so hard the cover popped off and hit Minato on the cheek. He frowned and she stuck out her tongue.

"And _ORANGE!" _Gai shouted with excitement, bouncing on his chair. He loved both green _and _orange!

Kakashi ignored them and carefully squeezed white icing on a dab of black before stirring them together with a toothpick to form a swirl. He squeezed gray icing on a shuriken shaped cookie and used a popsicle stick to spread it out. He was just starting to add little black lines to his shuriken when the nozzle of an icing tube appeared in his sight.

"No!" he cried, just as a thick spray of green icing came out.

"Now it's fuzzy!" he accused, pointing at it. "How can it kill things if it's fuzzy!"

He paused.

"And _green!"_

"But it's pretty!" Gai protested, trying to squeeze more icing on it. Iruka gingerly picked up the black and white icing swirl Kakashi had made, the disc semi-hardened.

"Stop touching Kakashi's weapons!" he shouted, swinging back his arm.

"Whirling Blade Attack! Boosh!" Iruka shouted. Minato and Kushina froze mid-battle and stared as Iruka flung the icing disc towards Gai.

The icing disc struck the boy right in the middle of his forehead, a monotone swirl plastered to his head for a moment before it fell to the table. Gai looked stunned.

Then he smiled.

"That. Was. SOAWESOME!" he screamed.


	7. Day 7 :: Ornaments Not Armaments

Day 6

**Title ::** Ornaments Not Armaments  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [kid!everyone]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Kakashi and Iruka have to make ornaments for a peace monument. A minor war erupts. (Set the year after Ninjabread Men, making them about 6 years old)

* * *

><p>これはぼくらの叫びです これは私たちの祈りです 世界に平和をきずくための<br>_Kore wa bokura no sakebi desu. Kore wa watashitachi no inori desu. Sekai ni heiwa o kizuku tame no._  
>This is our cry, this is our prayer: for building peace in the world.<br>~ An inscription at the base of a peace bell at the Children's Peace Memorial within Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park ~

.

"Christmas is a time for peace," the teacher said as she held up a folded piece of paper and a pair of scissors.

"Christmas is so powerful that during World War I, German and British soldiers stopped fighting for one Christmas day and celebrated together," she continued as she carefully started to cut random bits out of the paper square.

"Christmas isn't about religion. It isn't about gifts or getting things. It isn't about shopping or even Santa," she proclaimed to a host of gasps. Even in a country as non-Western as Japan, Santa still held great sway.

"No," she shook her head.

"Christmas is about a feeling of being together and knowing that we all live in this world together. It is our unity that makes us strong. We are each of us small," she went on, setting down her scissors and carefully shaking open her cut-up paper. "But we are beautiful and we can be great."

The children gasped at the sight of the paper snowflake; enchanted.

"The reason I say this is that today marks a great day of peace for Japan," the teacher said, holding up a felt cut-out in the shape of a dove.

"It is also a day of great sorrow," she continued, holding up an origami crane.

"Several times a year––this day among them––every year since 1946, we Japanese have remembered a terrible event–– a terrible war that reminds us of why peace is so wonderful.

"We will be making ornaments for a special tree at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and we will be taking them there later this week for a field trip. The whole school will participate so that we have a lot of ornaments to go around. That being said, there will be no lessons today." She finished to cheers.

"Did you hear that, Kakashi?" Iruka asked, his face in the hallway window. "We're going on a field trip!"

"What are you doing," Kakashi hissed, waving at him to go away. "You're supposed to be in class!"

"We're coming over here anyhow," Iruka pouted. "I just left early."

"You can't just come walking out whenever you fe–"

"Kakashi-kun, is there something you need," the teacher asked, coming to stand by his desk. He looked at her guiltily.

Iruka ducked, not realizing the teacher had stuck her head out the window and was looking at him.

"You again," she sighed. "Come inside, Iruka-kun."

"Yes, Chiyo-sensei," he mumbled, shuffling his feet.

"Since you're already here," she trailed off. "You can be be Kakashi-kun's partner today."

Gai, who had been waving his arms around whispering a loud chant of "Me! Me! Me!" groaned, complaining that he wanted to be Kakashi's partner. Ibiki, his seatmate, gave him a leery glance and leaned away.

"Okay everyone," Chiyo-sensei called, clapping her hands for attention. "The kindergarten class will be along shortly. All you first years will pair up with one kindergartner."

Ibiki sighed with relief before paling as a certain dango-loving kindergartner careened into the room screeching his name. For whatever reason, the loud girl always claimed him as her "aniki" and demanded constant attention. Anko might just be a worse deal than Gai.

The sickly boy named after a World War II fighter plane that ended up paired with Gai looked as if he might keel over every time Gai did something energetic. It was worrying to see Hayate pale and cough the way he did whenever Gai flailed around. Ibiki felt exhausted just being around the two of them.

The teachers split up the children according to their general dexterity: paper snowflake and felt-shape making to children less likely to dismember themselves with scissors, folding of cranes to children unlikely to make paper shuriken and start ninja battles, and hook forming to the rest of the less articulately gifted.

That being said, children would always be children and Gai somehow got hold of a paper shuriken and proceeded to shout that he was a Great Ninja Warrior. Anko made a paper hat and declared herself a pirate and began to "shoot" him with paper scraps. Their partners gave up on their projects and crawled under the desk to wait out the storm.

Meanwhile, on the far end of the room, Iruka was surprisingly well behaved. His father had shown him how to fold paper cranes when the hospital sponsored a trip to the Children's Peace Monument in October and he found he loved making them. He wasn't quite able to get the creases quite right though, and was busy frowning over a wing fold that kept popping up when Kakashi made an annoyed sound and grabbed the partially-folded paper, shoving a new piece of origami paper at him.

"You're not doing it right," Kakashi mumbled, carefully creasing the wing flap. Iruka pursed his lips.

"I am," he countered, snatching it back. "You're the one who's doing it wrong. You don't fold the wing that hard. It's mean!"

"It's not even alive," Kakashi groaned, grabbing the crane Iruka was yet-again fumbling with.

"And stop messing with it so much! It'll get smushed!" Kakashi scolded, carefully smoothed a crumpled wing.

"_You'll _get smushed!" Iruka stuck out his tongue and stole the newly formed crane, piling it on his side of the desk.

"Not even," Kakashi proclaimed. "I'm bigger. You can't smush me."

"Can too," Iruka cried, hoarding all the paper on his lap.

"Cannot!" Kakashi tried to steal back the paper.

"Super can too!" Iruka scooted his chair backwards.

"Super double cannot!" Kakashi started to come out of his chair.

"Super double _really _can too!" Iruka started to lose papers and reached for them just as Kakashi did.

Their foreheads met with a solid thunk and they fell backwards with startled cries, origami flying in the air. Anko and Gai bound over, curiosity gleaming in their eyes.

"What's going on, Iruka-kun," Anko asked, an empty paper towel roll in her hand. She pointed it at Kakashi with an unhealthy degree of menace. "What did you do to him."

"I didn't–" Kakashi was cut off as Gai pushed his way between the paper towel roll and Kakashi.

"Don't point that at Kakashi-kun," he declared. "No weapons in a cease fire!"

"It's not real!" Anko hit him on the arm with the roll.

Gai was quiet for all of two seconds before he let out a shrill whoop and shouted "ATTACK!"

Iruka, irritated at seeing his papers being trod on, tackled Gai, wrapping his arms around his waist and screaming as he tried to floor the older boy. Gai wiggled and flailed for the table, shouting as he went down. Chairs screamed as they skidded across the floor, papers flying into the air.

Kakashi tried to pull Iruka off Gai when something wet landed on his head and ran down the back of his neck. He looked up just in time to see Anko squeezing the bottle of glue again and rolled out of the way, landing right in the middle of Iruka and Gai's tussle.

Anko threw away her bottle and let out a whoop before leaping at the trio... only to be caught midair.

"What is going on here!" Chiyo-sensei shouted, tucking a wriggling Anko under her arm.

The boys froze and scrambled to disentangle themselves. Iruka stammered a bit as Gai puffed out his chest.

"We were acting out the war," Kakashi said. "And now we're at the peace part."

The teacher seemed to heave a full-body sigh of resignation.

"I believe this experience will help us to sympathize with the soldiers," Kakashi lied baldy.

"Nice try," Chiyo-sensei deadpanned. "You're all still getting detention."

* * *

><p><strong>NOTES<strong>

1941, December 7, the Japanese Imperial Naval Forces launched an attack on Pearl Harbor naval Base in Hawaii which prompted the United States of America to abandon neutrality and enter World War II. During that war, the United States dropped 2 atomic bombs on different cities within Japan in a bid to end Japanese involvement and the war itself.

Since their wartime involvement ended in 1945, both countries have become sister countries and have pledged to pursue global peace so that such events may never be repeated. Over time, both have exchanged and created peace parks and peace memorials to commemorate such events as the two bombings and major battles.

December 7th ever year, veterans on both sides from both the war and the Pearl Harbor attack still visit the memorials and meet up to absolve any enmity and to know each other as people, not soldiers and enemies. This year marks the 70th anniversary of the day that would live in infamy.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park is constructed near the A-bomb landing site that flattened the city in 1945. On its grounds are the now-famous Children's Peace Park and the statue of Sasaki Sadako whose story is chronicled in the book _A Thousand Paper Cranes _still remains a tragic plea for peace. Children and adults from all over the world fold cranes to lay at her feet in support of world peace.


	8. Day 8 :: Deck The Halls

Day 8

**Series ::** Christmas Spirits  
><strong>Title ::<strong> Deck the Halls  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [kid!Kakashi + kid!Gai + kid!Iruka + OC]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. It's time to decorate the new Hatake family home. Set after the side-story, A House Is Not A Home. (They're 6 and 7 years old)

* * *

><p>Kakashi was <em>not <em>a fan of decorating. He was especially not a fan of Christmas decorations. He was even less a fan of holly and pine needles as the scratches on his hands would attest to. Pakkun, his newly-minted puppy, seemed to agree by the way he would sniff, then sneeze at the needles before looking at him accusingly.

"Hey, it's not my fault," Kakashi mumbled, hissing as a prickly holly leaf jabbed him between his fingers. "You don't have to stay there."

Pakkun stared at him some more before batting at the pine needle garland that was still offending him. He looked at Kakashi again as if demanding to know what it was doing there.

"Stop _looking _at me like that," Kakashi commanded. "No."

Pakkun seemed to glare and sniffed before waddling away, his curly little tail, tight against his back like a doughnut, seeming to mock him. Kakashi sighed.

"Kakashi-kun," Gai called, tottering on the edge of a chair and holding a holly bunch and a hammer.

"Look at me!" he shouted, swinging the hammer and falling off the chair with a loud clatter.

He screamed.

Five minutes later and a teary-eyed Gai was curled up on his father's lap, manfully insisting his face didn't hurt anymore though he didn't ease his grip on his father's sweater. An ice bag was carefully pressed to the side of his face and he was cringing away from everyone, embarrassed to have been seen crying.

"Aah, Gai-kun," his father sighed. "Now you know why you don't stand on furniture, right?"

Gai nodded pathetically, still sniffling.

"Did you put it up?" he asked hopefully as Kakashi shuffled towards him. Kakashi kicked his toe and looked away.

"Yeah, I put up your dumb holly like you wanted," Kakashi muttered, pointing at the wall.

There, stuck with removable hooks were holly bunches in the shape of a smiley face. Gai gave Kakashi a wobbly smile and slid off his father's lap, still clutching the ice bag to his face.

"It's crooked though," he declared after thoughtful consideration. "But not bad."

"It's because your head is tilted, dummy," Kakashi shot back, crossing his arms with a huff.

A thunder of feet echoed down the hallway before Iruka skidded into the room, sliding in his socks across the hardwood floor, stalling on the tatami mat and tumbling forward. He popped up a moment later with a reflexive "I'm okay!", then saw Gai.

"Woah! What happened to your face!" he shouted with all the tact of a 6-year-old.

"It's a battle wound," Gai declared, puffing up his chest. Iruka was agog.

"Were you fighting samurai?" he asked. "Or _ninjas?"_

"Ninjas of course!" Gai shouted. "Because I am honorable! I was defending Kakashi's home!"

"Wow!" Iruka shouted, jumping up and down. "I've never seen a _real _ninja!"

"There weren't any ninjas!" Kakashi protested, stepping forward, feeling defensive for some reason. "Unless your ninjas were green and red and poky!"

"Look around," Gai proclaimed, pointing with his free hand. Kakashi, against his better judgment, looked.

"We are surrounded by green and red ninja!" Gai went on.

"Those aren't–" Kakashi started.

"And I challenge you to the battle of the green and red ninja! We shall see who can cover the most of them up!" Gai continued, throwing his hands up, the side of his face a bright red. "Starting now!"

Kakashi sighed and flinched as something poked his arm. He glared at the offending greenery when it wiggled and gave Iruka a flat look. The boy wiggled it again and grinned.

"Come on," the brunet whispered, pointing at the boy practically throwing tinsel on everything. "You have to defeat Gai!"

"Yes, squire," Kakashi uttered sternly. "You. Carry my things."

"Yes, sir!" Iruka snickered and tucked a box of fairy lights under each arm before marching after his "commanding officer" with exaggerated strides. He didn't notice the small puppy waddling after and staring up at him curiously.

Gai hung huge glass ornaments on Sakumo's collection of bonsai, the tiny trees dwarfed by massive glass horses, stars, and houses. He hung ornaments off ornaments, determined that more was better.

When the sun angled itself just right, it refracted off the glittering trees with a light so bright, Tsunade fell off the landing and onto the grass. She lay there moaning that she had died and to bury her under the house.

Gai's father made him tone down the display.

Across the yard Iruka was busy climbing a cherry tree with a rope in hand, Kakashi staring worriedly from the base, when a squirrel jumped on his head and began to chitter angrily. Iruka yelped and batted at the creature, seating himself on a thick branch as he did so. Kakashi immediately began to shout at the squirrel and Pakkun waddled back and forth barking his irritation, small body bouncing with each outburst.

The squirrel froze when the barking started and clambered off Iruka's head, coming halfway down the tree to stare at the puppy. Pakkun stared at it intensely before letting out a small sound that was more of a "boof" than anything else. The squirrel scurried away, looking over its shoulder every few seconds before it jumped into a bush and disappeared.

Pakkun sat down heavily as if he had just done a massively great deed and gave Kakashi a pointed look. The boy shrugged and tied the free end of Iruka's rope to a string of lights and held it up.

Iruka, looking a little worse for wear, frantically began to haul on the rope. He wanted to get out of squirrel-infested trees as quickly as possible. He pulled up the rope so fast the plug at the end of the lights almost struck him in the face.

He was lying on the branch straining to wrap the length of lights around it when Michio came out to see what was going on and rushed over, scolding him about people falling from trees and the kinds of injuries they sustained before lifting him off the branch.

"How would you even plug this in," Michio asked, pointing to the tree.

"The house is all the way over there." He pointed across the yard.

"Use more lights," Kakashi said, as if it was the most obviously thing in the world.

"First of all, that's dangerous." Michio sighed. "Second of all, you will be able to see the cord if you just stretch it out like that."

"Cover it with blankets," Kakashi said with a shrug. "Nobody will notice."

"Until they fall." Michio deadpanned. "Kakashi, there are special things for tree lights."

"They had better not fall then." Kakashi was unsympathetic.

"Kakashi, let's put lights on the bushes too," Iruka piped up, scooping a pile of lights into his arms, completely missing the whole conversation. He took a step forward and tripped on a dangling strand and fell forward, almost squashing an offended looking Pakkun.

"Okay, we won't use a long cord," Kakashi said.


	9. Day 9 :: Fallacy of the Fat Man

Day 9. Super apologies for the late late _late _update. I will try to control the delinquencies from here on out.

**Title ::** Fallacy of the Fat Man  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [kid!Kakashi + kid!Iruka]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. There comes a time in every child's life where he never believed in Santa. Set the year after Deck the Halls. (They're 7 and 8 years old)

* * *

><p>There comes a time in every child's life where he or she stops believing in the magic of Christmas. Or Santa. Or in the spirit of goodwill and giving and all that other warm and fuzzy stuff. This terrible time of maturity comes earlier for some children than others, that is, if that child ever believed in the fat man or his precious holiday to begin with.<p>

Hatake Kakashi, at the ripe old age of eight, would claim he was one of those children who had never believed in such a fanciful notion. He would ascribe his insight into the universal lie to his initial meeting with the jolly elf and the strange alien light that accompanied him when he was all of three months old, as well as later experiences with strange incarnations of the man such as: Secret Santa, Surfing Santa, Hawaiian Santa, Deaf Santa, Kris Kringle, The Jolly Old Elf, St. Nicholas, Krampus the wicked troll who accompanies St. Nicholas on his rounds and punishes naughty children but who must obviously be an alibi for the man losing his temper on children who rightfully scorned his inferior gifts, and so on and so forth.

Nudist Santa was an especially unpleasant encounter; one that would be remembered in the annals of court history through a series of long drawn-out litigation and trials and community service that involved sewing buttons onto children's school uniforms by hand. A man with that many aliases and suspicious accounts of breaking and entry was no friend of his. To his eternal chagrin, all his immense logic was wasted on his longtime companion– The Brain.

Technically his argument was with Iruka, but The Brain was the party piece; the focal point of their discussions regarding the red elf.

"I'm telling you, he doesn't exist," Kakashi said, kicking off the ground and arching his legs toward the sky in his swing seat.

"He _does,_" Iruka insisted, pushing Kakashi as he swung back.

"It's impossible," the older boy replied, swinging higher.

"No it's _not,_" Iruka whined, shoving Kakashi harder.

"There is no way for a man of that size to enter someone's house without detection," the older boy countered, sliding forward a bit on his seat before resettling himself.

"Not to mention–" his trajectory went slightly astray as Iruka shoved him unevenly. "–that there is no way for a single person to travel around the world and visit so many houses in a 24-hour period."

"And _flying _reindeer? I really don't–"

Iruka decided to push with his foot instead.

"Hey, don't kick!"

"I saw a reindeer yesterday!" Iruka shouted, frowning when Kakashi leapt off the swing, spinning in a fine dismount.

"That was Maito-sensei's car," Kakashi deadpanned. "You know Gai likes ridiculous things like that."

"I'm not talking about the car," Iruka pouted, irritated that he'd forgotten about telling Kakashi about the Toyota dressed up as Rudolph complete with tail and blinking red nose.

"I still say it's not possible for Santa Claus to exist. In fact, it's in his name! The English word "clause". It means there is an amendment to some existing document somewhere; probably one proving he _doesn't exist." _Kakashi shrugged. "Or it could mean he has claws which would make him a type of animal. Then I still think he's that Krampus guy and he's going to beat everyone with a stick on Christmas."

"Santa gave you The Brain after you asked for it! How do you explain that!" Iruka shouted, pointing accusingly from his side of the swings.

"I told you already," Kakashi sighed heavily. "My _father _gave it to me."

"It said 'From Santa' right on the tag," Iruka cried, pushing his way through the swings.

"In my father's handwriting." Kakashi casually stepped back as he approached. "You don't think I can't recognize my own parent's writing?"

"Our parents _help _Santa! He's busy and he can't do everything himself!" The brunet lunged at Kakashi.

"_Help? _More like, they _are _Santa," Kakashi snorted, dancing out of the way.

"And what about Secret Santa? That's not Santa either," he continued, needling the other boy with unholy glee.

"Who says we can't help Santa either!" Iruka bellowed, charging his friend again.

"But if we're doing the Santa-ing, then _we _are Santa and therefore he doesn't exist!" Kakashi jumped to the side and ran towards the UFO tower.

"_Kakashiiiii,_" Iruka whined, chasing after him.

"You always do stuff like this! Why can't you just accept that he exists!" Iruka tried to grab Kakashi's shoe as he clambered up the structure.

"Why can't you accept that he doesn't!" Kakashi countered, kicking his foot free.

"You always think you're _soooo _grown up, but you're not! Even my mommy says Santa exists," Iruka shouted, climbing after the older boy.

"Parents lie," Kakashi called down, hoisting himself into the disc at the top. "Get over it!"

"You're just scared you won't get what you want because you didn't talk to Santa!" Iruka yelled angrily through the hole at the bottom of the flying saucer.

"I'm too old to talk to Santa, you dobe," Kakashi yelled back, pushing Iruka's face back as he tried to climb in. "Talking to Santa is for babies and girls. Are you a girl?"

Iruka grappled with Kakashi's hand and tried to bite his fingers, grinning triumphantly as they were snatched back.

"Don't mock my warrior's tail! I know I have long hair, but I'm not a girl," he declared, pulling himself up. "And Gai-kun still talks to Santa, so there!"

"You're not proving your point," Kakashi muttered, shifting back and pulling his scarf up over his nose. Iruka pressed his face close, nose almost touching Kakashi's through the scarf. The gray-haired boy looked away, fingers tightening on his scarf.

"It's okay, I already talked to Santa-san for you," the younger boy cooed.

Kakashi's eyes snapped to his warningly, darkening with suspicion. Iruka leaned in closer, grin frighteningly wide as he whispered in his ear.

"I told him what you wanted the most this Christmas was a DVD of Gai-kun and Ibiki-kun singing Christmas songs with his Mr. Muscle-san dressed as a reindeer and Santa-san's wife."

Kakashi shoved him away grouchily, grumbling, "That's the most awful thing I can think of."

"Nah, I told him you wanted an anatomical nerve figure complete with acupuncture points. The one that can light up inside." Iruka practically crowed and sat back with a smug grin.

Kakashi smiled slowly as he shifted to a crouch.

"You had better watch out for Krampus this year. You've been _really _bad this time," he yelled, diving out the UFO's slide.

* * *

><p><strong>NOTES<strong>

Krampus is an Eastern European mythical figure that is said to accompany St. Nicholas and punish naughty children, usually by stuffing them in a sack and beating them with a stick.

Hawaiian Santa and Surfing Santa are generally accepted to be one and the same.

Deaf Santa is a special needs Santa that usually visits hospitals and schools for the deaf and blind.


	10. Day 10 :: Snow Day

Day 10

**Title ::** Snow Days  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [kid!everyone + teen!other people]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Every winter, Konoha Gakuen and its University Hospital would take its students and able patients north to see the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (Sapporo Snow Festival) in Hokkaido. Set the year after Fallacy of the Fat Man. (They're 8 and 9 years old. Older kids, about 17 and 18.) Since it's an elevator system technical school attached to a University Hospital, they can start interning at about that age and start taking primarily medical classes at around 14/15.

* * *

><p>Minato sank back against the railing at his end of the train seat and slid a glance at his charge. Kakashi sat stiffly staring ahead, feet dangling high off the floor. His backpack <em>looked <em>like it might be moving, but Minato couldn't be sure. He didn't know what a straight-laced kid like Kakashi would be doing smuggling things on the train anyhow.

A sound from across the aisle caught his attention and he saw Kushina giggling and showing Iruka how to play some silly string game. She was still a bit pale from the chemo, but at least she wasn't as thin as she used to be and her hair had grown since she'd stopped shaving it in support of her treatment; now thick and long and trailing over the seat like a dark red wave. It would probably get stuck in a crack somewhere and she'd regret leaving it down. He snickered to himself at the mental image of her stuck to the train; a bright orange blob hanging from the doors as it departed.

He felt a sudden chill of disapproval and turned back guiltily, meeting Kakashi's blank stare. His face heated and he shrugged helplessly, twitching a bit with the desire to look back.

Kakashi frowned, tugging his light orange scarf up over his nose with a huff. Kushina was not only a _girl _and therefore icky, but she also liked _orange _as evidenced by the scarf he was wearing (a gift from when she had first learned to knit, now thankfully a less blinding neon than when he'd received it and thereby barely acceptable to wear in public) and that fact alone was enough to make her one of the enemy; one of the unclean. He had no idea why Minato felt the need to be friends with her.

Something moved in his bag and he tightened his grip a little, casting a surreptitious glance toward his chaperone and relaxing slightly at his now regular distraction. At least Kushina was good for _something. _It meant he couldn't sit by Iruka though, and that bothered him.

It bothered him almost as much as Gai who was sitting on his knees backwards on the seat and staring him down, an embarrassing carrot nose stuck to his face. He insisted he was pretending to be a snowman. Kakashi couldn't disagree that the boy's head wasn't full of slush.

"Stop that," he muttered under his breath.

Gai looked down at Kakashi's wriggling backpack and grinned, shaking his head and bouncing on his knees. He reached out with a stick and poked at Kakashi's arm.

Kakashi growled under his breath and shrugged off the stick, glaring all the while.

Gai reached out to poke him again.

"Gai-kun, please turn around," his seatmate yawned. Gai looked at his chaperone, Shikaku, who nodded his head towards the seat _behind _Minato and Kakashi where another intern, Yoshino was busy giving them a death glare. He gulped and sank to his seat, peeking over before turning around.

"Good boy," Shikaku mumbled, closing his eyes again. "We would have all been disemboweled."

Kakashi smirked to himself, freezing as his bag shifted again. He snuck a look towards Minato and this time, the teen was looking back from under his eyelashes, smiling a little. Minato rolled his eyes and shook his head before opening a book and ignoring him.

Kakashi frowned. He hated to be at a disadvantage.

The kids piled out of the train a few hours later, crowding the platform in a chaotic herd against the half-hearted protests of their chaperones; half of whom were excitedly casting about for sights of snow. Izumo and Kotetsu, best buddies since they now shared desks at school, ran around trying to see everything, occasionally stopping each other short by the shared scarf that tethered their necks. Their chaperon, Chouza, had found it impossible to eat his stash of snacks and watch them both at the same time and the makeshift hobble kept his hands free.

"That was _genius _of you," Shikaku mumbled, flinching when Yoshino shot him a dirty glare as if she _knew _he was thinking about doing something ill-advised.

"Your kid is the one that needs a leash," Inoichi commented, pointing at Gai who was busy trying to climb atop a statue; most like a representation of some sacred Ainu god who would curse his immortal soul for the desecration. Next to him, a purple-clad Anko was doing the same, only from a different direction.

"Yours too," Chouza said between bites of takoyaki. "Both of them."

The three boys watched as Ibiki latched onto Anko's leg and began to pull while she kicked and shouted curses no 8-year-old should know. Asuma and Kurenai joined in the fray in an attempt to dislodge Gai who had started to laugh maniacally.

"Why are you all so _useless,_" Yoshino hissed, rushing in to subdue the children.

"Man," Inoichi said. "Your girlfriend is really _scary._"

"She's not my girlfriend!" Shikaku yelped.

Across the platform, Kakashi waddled–yes, waddled–with his backpack in front of him, the zipper gaping open as a little wrinkled face appeared and looked around curiously before blinking at him. The dog's eyes flattened into a concentrated look of intense need and Kakashi huffed.

"I know, I know. I'm putting you down now," he whispered, sneaking behind a bush and depositing his illicit burden.

Pakkun's little feet touched the icy ground and he began to soft-step, looking around with distress and shaking. He looked like a multicolored marshmallow in his snowflake sweater. He looked like a multicolored marshmallow that couldn't decide if it had to pee or not or, failing either, if it could just will its pee back until a warmer toilet presented itself.

Pakkun stared at Kakashi with soulful eyes, but Kakashi's expression didn't change.

The pug seemed to sniff and, with his eyes on Kakashi, minced to stand by him and casually lifted his leg. Kakashi danced out of the way and glared as Pakkun seemed to snicker.

"That would have served you right," came a thoughtful voice from over the bush.

Kakashi and Pakkun jumped and looked up guiltily. Minato grinned and winked before giving a toss of his head.

"Come on, you guys. We're going to see the sculptures now. Iruka's already by the Ice Dragon." He added, just to see Kakashi's eyes light up.

He chortled to himself as Kakashi hustled Pakkun back into his cocoon and bumbled towards the rainbow-lit Ice Palace where a sinuous blue-and-purple Ice Dragon danced in the courtyard. The kid always tried to seem so unaffected by life, but really he was still just a kid. It was great to see him like that.

Iruka was nowhere to be found at the Ice Dragon, though Kakashi thought he had caught sight of his antlered beanie. He'd thought he'd seen the other boy for a brief moment, oddly distorted by the sloping back of the ice sculpture, but it ended up being Gai with his snowman-arm stick tucked into the back of his jacket who was trying to lick the stupid thing while a sallow looking Hayate feebly poked at him and told him not to.

Shikaku stood there weakly tugging at Gai's pom-pom scarf and uttering quiet "hey's" while Chouza gave a running commentary on the viability of turning the whole park into a giant shave ice dessert. Inoichi, unusually, wasn't anywhere near them but considering there was a pretty girl giving a demonstration on special winter ikebana, his disappearance wasn't really all that unusual.

Kakashi monitored the unfolding events dispassionately from a distance, inching his way towards the ice ramp leading to the snow sculptures.

"Odd," Minato muttered, coming up the long set of ice stairs, sliding a bit on the penultimate death trap– step. Hokkaido officials frowned upon any part of their festival being referred to as a death trap.

"I thought I saw them, but I may have been mistaken," he said, patting Kakashi on the head.

"You could hardly miss a giant mikan," the boy deadpanned, ducking his head away and starting down the ramp.

Minato's eyes bulged a little and he snickered, giggling unmanfully into his gloved hands.

"If only Kushina heard that! You'd–"

A snowball landed on the side of his face with a wet _smack. _He blinked and looked around furiously like a hunted animal, scrubbing at his cheek and pushing Kakashi.

"She _did,_" he hissed, hustling them down the ramp.

"That was just a coincidence," Kakashi insisted. "No girl can throw like that. Especially not one dressed in that much orange. We'd be able to see her."

"Oh no. She's _good,_" Minato insisted, flinching as they passed a snow statue of a carousel.

"There is no way–"

It was Kakashi's turn to be cut off as the snow mother and snow child beside them suddenly came to life with loud roars and piled snow on them.

* * *

><p><strong>OMAKE<strong>

"I'm sorry, Pakkun, I didn't mean to," Iruka cried sorrowfully as the pug glared at him.

"Why are you telling _him _sorry," Kakashi grumbled, wiping the damp away from Pakkun's wrinkles with a tea towel.

"You have to admit," Kushina chortled, brushing her hair, now a frizzy wet snarl. "That was really funny."

"It was only funny when you two couldn't get back up after the snow froze around your legs and we got to return the favor," Minato said, carrying a tray of hot chocolate from the cafe.

"_In _your jackets." He smiled smugly.

* * *

><p><strong>NOTES<strong>

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri celebrates ...snow. With lots of ice and snow sculptures, some of them entire buildings with implanted lights you can walk on and in. It happens in February every year.

Ainu – indigenous native peoples living in the north

mikan – basically the orange/tangerine that normally appears on mochi

ikebana – the Japanese art of flower arranging


	11. Day 11 :: Falalala

Day 11

**Title ::** Chaotic Caroling  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> G [kid!everyone + teen!other people]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Konoha Gakuen required its students to sing at the University Hospital every December. Western Christmas songs were always so troublesome. Set the year after Snow Days. (They're 9 and 10 years old. Older kids, about 18 and 19.)

* * *

><p>Tsunade bit back a yawn and blinked sleepily as sullen looking children were herded into the visitor's area by harried looking adults, self-made paper antlers affixed to floppy red and white hats. She blinked as the more senior of the hospital population trickled in, trailed after by most of the Pediatrics Ward.<p>

What on earth?

Eri and Nanori practically floated into the room, fairy light necklaces casting their faces in rainbows. The wings on their backs––Oh hell no. Tsunade was _not _getting tricked into participating in another dumb Christmas concert.

Tsunade sidled behind one of the fat Christmas trees in the corner and crouched down beside a large glass bulb, almost sitting on the lap of someone already hiding there and dozing away.

"Whu-" Jiraiya jumped sleepily as Tsunade clapped a hand over his mouth.

"_Why didn't you warn me,_" she hissed, slapping his arm as hard as she could. He yelped.

"_There wasn't time! I barely found out myself!" _he hissed back, yanking her hand off his mouth.

She slapped him again.

"Argh! Crazy woman! How are we even related!" he whined.

"I hope you know I can hear you," Kakashi stated from around the tree. They froze, shaking in terror as a distorted shadow appeared in one of the tree bulbs, jumping when Iruka's head popped around the corner.

"How can you watch from over there," he asked, a big red nose on his face.

"It's called 'getting a unique perspective on life'," Jiraiya said, settling against the wall was a smarmy grin.

"I'll make sure to sing extra loud for you then," the boy promised.

"Oh goody," mumbled Tsunade, making a shooing motion. Iruka gave a little wave and disappeared.

"All right, now the hospital staff will start off with a song called _Oh Christmas Tree,_" came a familiar thready voice that made the two hidden doctors cringe. Orochimaru rarely ventured from the Toxicology Lab and to hear him sing would be a torment, especially since he did it with such malicious gusto.

"_Oh, Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree," _Orochimaru's voice shrilled raspily to a chorus of high-pitched giggling. "_How do I love your prickly... _Needles."

Tsunade groaned and buried her face in her hands. It was going to be one of _those _kinds of singing concerts. Jiraiya adjusted his ear plugs and smirked at her.

Ten minutes later and she was contemplating gouging out her eyes with pine needles to make the pain stop. The children were singing _Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer _severely off-key and had taken to stomping.

Outside the cozy arborial cocoon, Kakashi was busy being the most solemn Santa the world had ever seen. His silvery-gray hair was stuffed under a fluffy white-fringed hat and a beard hung off his face, trailing down towards his waist. His arms were crossed and he was pointedly ignoring the prancing "reindeer" circling him like natives at a bonfire.

Gai, having decided that the standard reindeer names from the song were not fabulous enough for his effervescent self, wore a sign proudly proclaiming his new reindeer name: Flashy. To complete the look, he had flashing antlers and a flashing nose and was happily shaking a rattle of bells in Kakashi's face while he practically shouted the words to the song; never mind that he was outshining the actual Rudolph, Iruka.

"_Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer," _Ibiki mumbled, tugging on his antlers with a blush. "_Reindeer!" _Izumo and Kotetsu shouted, bumping into Kakashi.

Santa had never glared so hard before.

"_Had a very shiny nose," _Anko shouted, pointing at Gai by accident before correcting herself and pointing at a frowning Iruka.

"_So shiny!" _Izumo and Kotetsu shouted, grabbing Hayate's arms and raising them high in the air while he groaned.

"_And if you ever saw it," _Kurenai sang sweetly, jolted aside as Iruka and Gai started grappling over the flashing nose.

"_You could say mine glows too," _Gai ad-libbed, pointing as his.

"Mine's brighter!" Iruka shouted, crowding him out.

"_Like a light bulb," _Minato cut in, smoothly stepping between the boys, a fake smile plastered on his face as they tried to reach around him to grab each other's noses. The prancing reindeer took no notice of the little drama and kept singing and skipping in dizzying circles around their glum Santa.

Kakashi, tiring of the never ending song, broke through his line of reindeer dancers and grabbed Iruka's hand before raising it as if he was proclaiming the winner of a fight. He looked at the crowd and, over the overall singing of the song, flatly declared, "Spoiler alert: Santa likes this one the best."

Eri, filming the whole thing with her favorite camera, choked back a giggle and zoomed in on Iruka's stunned face. The boy visibly pouted before shaking off Kakashi's hand to jump in front and throw his arms wide open, pointing vigorously at himself when the other children reached the "_Then all the reindeer loved him" _part.

Kakashi looked severely annoyed.

Unfortunately for the wayward little Santa, he was stuck starring in _Up on the Rooftop _as the present-delivering St. Nick as well. He endured more reindeer prancing and and embarrassing impromptu goodie bag delivering session to the elderly until Ibiki sang, "_and a whip that cracks" _ with abnormal glee. To which Kakashi immediately blurted out "KRAMPUS!" on reflex, freezing as all eyes turned to him and blushing furiously under his beard.

Thankfully, Santa retired to the sidelines for Konoha Gakuen's rendition of _Frosty the Snowman,_ which was more of _Flashy the Antlered Snowman _as Gai decided he should also be that and had brought his rubber carrot nose just for the occasion. The song had serious liberties taken with its format and was amended-in-progress to include lasers and ninjas and samurai ice skaters.

Unfortunately, halfway through the song suddenly Santa became un-retired and was turned into a red-suited Flying Ninja Parson Brown (because his gray hair obviously made him the right person for the job) and married Samurai Warrior Snowman Gai to Princess Snow Woman Genma who looked very displeased with his sudden stardom. He had been home schooled until very recently and was not a fan of teamwork or embarrassing public displays of snowy cross-dressing. He should have been glad that a pink scarf and flowered hat were the extent of his current foray into an alternative lifestyle.

Kakashi felt a little better about being Parson Brown after that.

Halfway through _Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree _some of the kids toppled through the back of the trees holding up the wall in the corner and chased out a flustered Tsunade who was grudgingly turned into an impromptu tree as they wrapped her in tinsel. Jiraiya huddled under the tree and pretended he no longer existed until Gai somehow ended up behind the tree and found him, dragging him out to a host of catcalls from some of the more senior staff as he tried to shake off the tree-sharing event with Tsunade as an unhappy accident, pointing at his arm and complaining of her abuse.

The kids, of course, didn't pay any attention to his complaints and bundled him and Tsunade in the middle of their group for the final group sing-along of their hospital torture session––Christmas concert––linking hands for _We Wish You a Merry Christmas _and swaying back and forth with general bonhomie.

Kakashi, somewhere in the middle of the song, snuck a look at Iruka who was swinging their joined hands back and forth energetically and felt an odd tightening in his impersonal little heart. He squeezed his hand a little and shuffled with sudden awkwardness before looking away. Iruka didn't notice.

A hand came to rest on Kakashi's head and he looked up in surprise to meet bright blue eyes.

Minato smiled down at him and ruffled his hair, wrapping his arms around the two boys and squishing them together and singing a loud "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year" as the rest of the children jumped up and threw tinsel and candy canes on the surprised crowd.


	12. Day 12 :: Worth More Than Gold

Day 12. Finale of the 4-part series starting with "The Best Things in Life"... But can be read as a stand-alone complex. It's semi-necessary for story progression purposes, but can be skipped since it's somewhat angst. The holiday spirit part comes at the end.

**Title ::** Worth More Than Gold  
><strong>Rating ::<strong> PG [angst!]  
><strong>Summary ::<strong> AU. Some things are worth even more. Set directly after Unexpected Tragedies and All. (They're 10 and 11.)

* * *

><p>Iruka woke with a muzzy head, the ceiling overhead dotted with whimsical tiles depicting a train puffing its way in an eternal loop around the room. There was something stuck to his face and his body ached all over with a strange ghostly sensation he couldn't quite focus on. His mouth felt cottony, but he couldn't get up the energy to move. He felt at once heavy and light and it bothered him.<p>

He blinked a little at the softly glowing blue light attached to a box with jagged panels of illuminated lines scrolling across its surface, bracketing by numbers. An EKG machine?

A soft whisper of sound caught his attention but before he could focus on what it was, he felt himself slip back into oblivion.

He fought briefly to the surface again when he heard the sound of a bed being rolled into the room, but he couldn't quite battle free of the cotton that padded his brain and he slipped away again. This happened several more times throughout the night.

When he finally came awake again, it was daytime. The sallow gray light filtered in through gauzy yellow curtains to turn the room a wash of cheery sunny tones. An empty bed was next to him; rumpled as if someone had slept in it and disappeared at dawn like a specter.

In the room across the hall, the occupants of the two beds there were still fast asleep. Kotetsu lay sprawled across his covers, limbs thrown wide to the corners and his mouth agape and drooling. A long bandage bisected his face, crossing the bridge of his nose. In the other bed, Izumo lay like a doll; heavily sedated with a thick padding taped over his right eye. An IV hung from an EEG machine at his side, steadily dosing him with narcotics.

Kotetsu snorted and woke himself up, blinking and groaning in pain.

"Ko-kun?" Iruka called out croakily, body still heavy and weak.

"Iru-kun?" Kotetsu called back, sliding off his bed and almost kissing the floor as his knees went weak. His IV bag toppled off its stand and fell next to him.

"Oh _honestly, _you two," cried a familiar voice from the hall. Kotetsu cringed as Yoshino's head popped around the corner and she glared.

The nursing student was surprisingly gentle as she helped Kotetsu settle into a wheelchair, though she surprised him when she strapped his IV bag to his head with a stern "keep your head up" before wheeling him to Iruka's room. She showed Iruka how to adjust his bed so he could sit up without sliding down and warned them she'd return to separate them in fifteen minutes.

Izumo finally came to a few hours later and though he wanted to, couldn't be moved. A Hyuuga from the ophthalmology department came to see him then and stayed with him for a long time before leaving without saying anything to Iruka or Kotetsu who tried in vain to listen at the door without success. The boy was almost crying when his friends piled weakly through the door to gawk at his bandages.

A mask-adorned Kushina came from her room down the hall to shoo Iruka back to his room, her chest rattling with a wet cough. It sounded like the dunk in the river had caused her pleurisy to flare. If it was pneumonia instead, she could be in for some serious trouble. Her immune system had never been all that strong.

The boy cast her a worried glance as she tucked him back into bed, a funny elf hat stuck to the IV bag she had bound to her head. She winked at him at patted him on the head. He didn't think he was tired, but within minutes, he was dead to the world.

It was dark the next time he awoke. The ceiling was splattered with multicolored stars dancing slowly across its surface. He could hear a soft mumble of voices outside his room and his head lolled tiredly to the side as he blinked at the little Christmas tree on a rotating stand next to him, a small pile of get-well-soon cards piled up beneath it.

"Just go ahead if you want to," a low voice murmured. Iruka perked up.

"You don't have to, but––" it continued.

"I want to," a quiet voice cut the first one off.

Iruka's eyelashes fluttered down as the door to his room slid open and a familiar spiky-haired silhouette walked in. Kakashi.

The gray-haired boy hopped on the empty bed next to Iruka's, cradling something in his arms. He kicked his feet for a bit and stared at the ground.

"Hey, Iruka," he mumbled. Iruka tried to control his breathing, to pretend he was still asleep.

"I know you're not sleeping," the boy continued. "I'm sorry you got hurt. But Minato-kun said that your stitches will heal without too much scarring and that you and Kotetsu-kun are lucky that you didn't lose your eyes."

Kakashi paused and kicked aimlessly again.

"Hyuuga-sensei––one of them anyway––said that Izumo-kun won't lose his eye and that he should be able to see again with some surgeries, so don't worry so much," he said quietly.

Iruka curled into his pillow, fists tight.

"And the foxes you liked so much, Inuzuka-sensei said she'll take care of them until you come out of hospital so just think about getting better, okay," Kakashi mumbled. He took a deep breath.

"About your parents––"

"Don't talk about it!" Iruka shouted, bolting upright, eyes bright. "I know everything was my fault!"

"It was an _accident,_" Kakashi protested, not meeting the boy's eyes.

"None of this would have happened if me'n Izumo-kun'n Ko-kun had just stayed in school like we were supposed to. It's my fault," Iruka sobbed, pulling the sheets over his head.

The corner of his bed dipped as Kakashi climbed up and Iruka shifted away, not wanting him near. Part of him ached to be hugged, but Kakashi didn't do hugs and nobody would want to touch him anyhow; not after what he had done.

Kakashi sighed and was quiet for a long time while Iruka huddled in the corner of the bed. After long moments, the sheet slid down and frustrated red-rimmed eyes peeked out to glare at him.

"_Well?" _Iruka demanded, waiting for Kakashi to just go away and abandon him like he deserved.

Kakashi shrugged.

"It's not your fault," he repeated prosaically. "And nobody blames you. You may not remember it, but you've been here for a week already and everyone's been to see you."

Iruka blinked.

"School's already gone on break," Kakashi went on, fiddling with whatever was in his hands. "And Christmas is almost here."

Iruka's face fell at the mention of Christmas; at the thought of his parents and how terrible things were going to be.

"We'll have the foxes at my house by then," Kakashi said haltingly. "Inuzuka-sensei will bring them over soon."

"And my parents said you can spend Christmas with us." He paused. "That is, if you want to."

"I don't––" Iruka stuttered through a choked breath.

"Maybe Santa will even come," Kakashi added grudgingly. "If you still even believe in that faker."

Iruka didn't say anything and instead, twisted the sheets between his fingers and nibbled worryingly at his lip.

"Here, take this," Kakashi muttered awkwardly, shoving the thing he'd been fiddling with into Iruka's lap before hopping off the bed.

"It'll make you feel better," he promised, shuffling awkwardly out the door.

Iruka dumbly felt the object in his hands and pressed a switch on the flat part. Kakashi's precious light-up model of The Brain––the one he'd had since he was four-years-old–glowed in the gloom. A post-it note was stuck to the frontal lobe and Iruka squinted to read it, smiling weakly at the childish scrawl.

_Happy early Christmas, Iruka._

_From, Santa's Helper_

* * *

><p><strong>NOTES<strong>

pleurisy – an inflammation of the lung lining. (If you can guess what disease Kushina has, I can't give you a physical prize but I can … write more! ノ(*´∇`)ノ)

EKG/ECG machine – (electrocardiogram) reads the electric activity in your heart (i.e. heart beats and pulses) Victims of severe hypothermia have depressed vitals and risk of heart failure and suppression is very high and must be monitored.

EEG machine – (electroencephalograph) reads your brain waves via electrodes stuck to your face and scalp. It helps monitor for things like seizures and brain activity. Izumo underwent drastic emergency facial/cranial surgery so... my excuse, lol.

IV bags on the head – yes you can do this and yes there are some hospitals in Asia that will do this instead of using an IV stand because they're cheap it's easier for mobility purposes


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